How do I find the values being sent to a website from my computer?

February 25, 2008 1:19 PM

Are there any browser plugins that allow you to see exactly what is being sent to a website (form post values, cookies, querystring, etc)?

I'm trying to automate a process that requires visits to a website, filling out forms, submitting, etc. I don't want to do it via gui automation, so I need to know all the form values and cookies being sent on each page request so I can duplicate them programmatically. Is there some browser plugin that would allow me to visit the pages, do the process manually, and see what values were sent each time? I know I can do this by looking at page source, etc, but I'm looking for a faster way to gather this information.

posted by sherlockt to computers & internet (7 comments total)

Try Live HTTP Headers for Firefox and ieHTTPHeaders for Internet Explorer.
posted by Bernt Pancreas at 1:26 PM on February 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

The best tool I've ever found for this job is Paros.

You set it as a proxy server, and it lets you debug and interact with everything.

It records all traffic, shows you all content and headers, and even lets you intercept and modify any part of the request or response between browser and server. I've found it invaluable.

Paros + a quick proxy-toggle plugin for Mozilla would be ideal.
posted by TravellingDen at 1:32 PM on February 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

I don't know if it does all of this specifically (although I suspect it does most if not all, i'm too lazy to check), but if you don't already have the Firebug plugin for Firefox, get it. I'll make you life so much easier.
posted by cgg at 1:36 PM on February 25, 2008

I checked out LiveHTTPHeaders for Firefox and it's exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks!
posted by sherlockt at 1:45 PM on February 25, 2008

Tamper Data is another Firefox plugin for this kind of thing.
posted by moonmilk at 1:53 PM on February 25, 2008

See also Firebug and YSlow.
posted by idb at 1:59 PM on February 25, 2008

Proxomitron (for Windows) includes a log window which shows every HTTP transaction going back and forth.
posted by Class Goat at 2:34 PM on February 25, 2008